The birds still sang, the sun still rose, and the earth kept right on spinning, but for Sasuke Uchiha, everything had changed. Yesterday he had a clan, a mother, a father, and a loving older brother. Yesterday he'd hoped to someday earn his father's respect, it had seemed so very, very important. Yesterday he had thought he was a strong, brave, little Uchiha boy. And yesterday he had stared into Father's cold dead eyes, and begged his killer to spare his life.

Itachi had only done so because Sasuke had been too… Why would Itachi… How could he? Just to test his… Why was the rest of his family dead? What… Just what had he done wrong?

"Sasuke," Mother said, sliding open the door. She sat by his bed, and wrapped him in a hug. "What's wrong?"

"It was Itachi," Sasuke cried. "He killed everyone. He killed old man Teyaki, he killed Tekka, he killed Father, and he killed… You?"

"Oh Sasuke," Mother said, running her fingers reassuringly through his hair. "It was only a dream."

"B-but Itachi told me that he'd only been acting as a good older broth-" Itachi had said a lot of crazy things. Obviously it had been a dream. Hehehe, Itachi had said he'd killed the entire clan just to see if he could. How stupid was that? Of course it was a dream. Obviously. Sasuke got out of bed, and dried off his tears on his pajamas.

Soon he was off to the Academy like always, waving hello as he walked past old man Teyaki's shop. In his dream the old shop owner had been bleeding out, his blooding pooling in the little cracks in the sidewalk. He couldn't believed he'd cried in front of Mother just because of a stupid nightmare. He wanted people to think of him as a real shinobi, but he'd always seem like a little kid if he cried about every little thing. But that dream had been so long, so vivid… He still felt a little uneasy about everything.

"Alright class," Iruka said, walking into the classroom. The chatter of the students died down quickly, as Iruka wrote the mission objectives in big chalk letters on the blackboard. "Today we'll be learning about genjutsu."

Hehehe… That was kinda strange. Exactly the same lesson as yesterday. Maybe Iruka felt that some of the students hadn't learned it very well, but shouldn't he have at least-

Iruka wrote down a list, one-two-three, of what they'd be going over. They'd be learning what a genjutsu was, how to realize you were inside a genjutsu, and finally how to break out of a genjutsu. Exactly the three topics they'd learned yesterday, word-for-word.

"Now, who can tell me what a genjutsu is?" Iruka asked. Was he serious? They'd literally gone over all this yesterday. But apparently everyone in class was stupid. Only two students raised their hands, just like always: Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki.

"Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said, standing up and jumping up and down. "Pick me! Pick me!"

Sasuke knew from experience what would happen: Iruka would pick Naruto, he'd say something stupid that may or may not be funny, and then Iruka would call on Sakura, and she'd actually give the correct answer and class could proceed. He didn't understand why Iruka always called on Naruto, and didn't just spare the blonde boy the embarrassment.

"Naruto," Iruka called, pointing at the boy.

Shikamaru sighed, sitting next to Sasuke. "Troublesome."

"A genjutsu is a jutsu that puts the victim in an illusion," Naruto said proudly, holding his nose up in the air. "And like, the user sometimes can't even tell and stuff! So like, you've got to stab yourself with things, and that can break the illusion, only some genjutsu are totally too strong for that stuff so we'll talk about it later. Believe it!"

"No, but that was a good try," Iruka said calmly, and pointed at Sakura. "Wait, actually that's right… Huh..." He blinked several times, as if something amazing had just happened. The entire class was looking at Naruto strangely, although Sasuke couldn't understand why. He'd just repeated what they'd learned yesterday. "I didn't think I'd ever say this, but good job Naruto. You are correct!"

Hinata started clapping, and pretty soon everyone else had joined in as well, even Iruka.

"Why is everyone making such a big deal about this?" Sasuke whispered.

"Don't be a jerk," Shikamaru whispered back. "Maybe class is easy for you, but Naruto's an idiot. Let him have his moment."

But even Naruto wasn't that dumb. He seemed more confused than proud. Sasuke didn't blame him. He'd just restated yesterday's lesson, but then again, Sasuke supposed… After his dream, as weird as it sounded, he kinda felt like he understood that it was tough being an orphan. So he started clapping as well. And Naruto broke into a good natured laugh, rubbing the back of his head.

It didn't last. Soon Naruto was making a ruckus, distracting everyone. Normally Sasuke found his antics childish and annoying, but… Seriously, the entire lesson was exactly the same, what the heck was Iruka trying to do?

"I get it now," Naruto finally said, pointing an accusatory finger at Iruka. Sasuke sighed, he was glad someone had finally said something. He'd thought he was going crazy for a second there. "You're messing with me! This is all a test!"

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Iruka asked, and he seemed genuinely confused. Sasuke didn't buy it for a second.

"I see through your stupid test," Naruto shouted angrily, jumping over his table, and stomping to Iruka's desk. "Making me think everyone had accepted me, playing me for a fool!" He slammed his head against the desk, and his legs just kinda gave out. He laid unmoving on the ground while his own blood pooled around him.

Iruka scrambled out of the room for a medical nin, and the class was silent for a few moments. And then it broke into laughter.

"That guy's sooo stupid," Kiba barked. "Why the hell'd he fucking do that?"

"It's Naruto," Sakura said, as if that explained everything.

But Sasuke hadn't thought Naruto was being unreasonable. Everything being exactly the same as yesterday, it really did seem like they'd been stuck in a genjutsu. Sure smashing your head into a desk wasn't the best way to check, but it wasn't like his actions were all that strange. "Don't you think?" Sasuke asked Sakura, having explained his reasoning. She was supposed to be the smartest girl in the class, and she'd raised her hand for the question about genjutsu.

Sakura just blushed, and grinned at Ino. "Oh Sasuke, you're so funny!" The two girls giggled to one another.

Whatever… It didn't matter… Probably. Class was over, so it was time to go back… Maybe he'd check out the library first, or do some training throwing shurikens. He needed to master them if he ever wanted to earn Father's…

Hehehe… What the heck was he doing? Was he that spooked by a dumb dream? He wasn't a stupid kid anymore…

But he really, really didn't want to go back home. Because what if… Hehehe… What if his dream had been prophetic? What if he'd been given a second chance and he'd fucking wasted it?

Sasuke found himself jogging anxiously back to the Uchiha District. He was being stupid. He was definitely being stupid. Hehehe… Mother would tease him about this for a while...

Itachi's crouched silhouette flashed across the full moon. No! NO!

Sasuke broke into a sprint, his heart pounding in his chest. He ignored the corpses littered across the road. Not again! Not again!

He could barely see his home through the tears. Mother screamed.

"Don't come i-" Sasuke burst through the door. And the image before him was completely different than what he remembered from yesterday. Oh Itachi was still there, Mother and Father were still dead, but… Hehehe… Itachi's fucking sword was buried in Mother's stomach.

This time he got to watch Mother die in front of him. See her face morph in horror, not from Itachi, not from the man who'd fucking murdered her, but because Sasuke was there to see it.

...Hehehe…

Sasuke charged the fucking murderer. He slammed into a wall at the same time as he felt Itachi's punch. He still couldn't do a damn thing… Hehehe… He still… Even still. He couldn't help but ask, "Why? Why did you kill them?"

Itachi's face was blank, neither angry or gleeful or sad, as if slaughtering the entire clan meant nothing. His voice was calm, slow, showing no hint of emotion. "Foolish little brother. The Uchiha Clan were simply a way to measure my capabilities."

Hehehe… He'd heard it before, but still… "THAT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT!"

And just like last time he was slammed into a wall. He couldn't even stand, he couldn't do anything but… But stare into Father's glassy dark eyes and lay in a pool of his parent's still warm blood. Hehehe…And yet, even now… Even now, all he could think about was his own survival.

It wasn't rage or anger or hate that gave him the strength to stand, to tear open the door. It was fear. He heard his brother's mocking laughter behind him, and it was… Hehehe… All he could feel was fucking relief that the man who had murdered his parents had chosen to spare him.

"Run Sasuke… Run as far as you can… Learn to survive… And if you want to kill me… Live miserably… Hate me!"

And Sasuke ran and ran and ran. Yesterday he'd vowed to never run from evil again. Broken. Broken like Sasuke, like the entire world, somethings could never be fixed.

He woke up the next morning in his room.

"HeheheHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Was he laughing? Was he crying? Even he didn't know.

But as Mother rushed into the room to console him, Sasuke realized one thing. For whatever reason, he was being forced to live the worst day of his life, over and over again. A lesser man would think himself cursed. But not Sasuke Uchiha. For Sasuke Uchiha knew he had been blessed by god. And he, Sasuke Uchiha, would be the one to stop the destruction of his clan. That was his purpose, that was his destiny.

His destiny alone.

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! I'm going to give this story three chapters before deciding whether or not to continue it, or work on other projects, so it may be a bit short.